Disclosure code to be toughened

Erin Neff

Friday, June 18, 1999 | 6:08 a.m.

Responding to campaign criticism about the financial disclosure process, the Las Vegas Ethics Review Board decided Thursday to tighten part of the requirement.

As part of disclosure process, candidates for office are required to reveal any ownership, interest in or intent to buy any real property in Nevada or an adjacent state. The code states the information should be listed with the specific location, use, name and corporate or partnership involvement in the property.

When Mayor-elect Oscar Goodman filed his disclosure statement March 15, he listed general locations for the parcels of land he owned. In some cases he said the land was at the corner of "Russell and Fort Apache" or at "Warm Springs and Jones."

City Clerk Barbara Jo "Roni" Ronemus said Goodman's disclosure complied with the law. However, Goodman was pressed to reveal the exact locations and his partners in the investments.

Since technically those aren't requirements, Goodman said he wouldn't meet those demands unless he was elected. On Wednesday he amended his disclosure form by filing that specific information.

"I always thought that the requirement was specific enough," said Earle White, chairman of the review board. "I didn't think there was a question about it until it came up.

"It asks for the specific location," he added. "But evidently it isn't specific enough."

City Attorney Brad Jerbic said there are different definitions for specific location, including street address or exact quadrant of an intersection. If unimproved land has no street address, he said, it is often hard to be specific.

"I don't think anybody really thought about what types of ambiguities exist when dealing with raw land," Jerbic said.

White suggested the city's code could be amended to require the Assessor's Parcel Number of any property. That would apply only to Nevada. Adjoining states have similar ways to identify property by tax parcel.

The Ethics Review Board will meet Aug. 12 to discuss including the parcel numbers in the financial disclosure requirements. The review board can ask the City Council to amend the municipal code to implement that change, Jerbic said.

Goodman said Thursday he "bent over backwards" to list as much specific information as possible on his amended financial disclosure form. The addendum lists his partners on 17 different properties, including former UNLV basketball coach Jerry Tarkanian, boxing promoter Bob Arum and attorney John Spilotro, the nephew of Goodman's former client Tony Spilotro.

Goodman's disclosure form is on the city's website (www.ci.las-vegas.nv.us) under the election information.